anite counters? My friend once dropped a beer bottle on our friend's slate kitchen floor and I'm pretty sure they're still going to find shrapnel from that incident decades from now because it really shattered into many tiny little shards...

We have a cutting board about an inch and a half tall, and if there's, say, a pint glass sitting on the edge and you bump it it'll fall off with enough force to break. Similarly, edges of plates will chip.

It's not as bad as our old ceramic(!) sink, which broke stuff like CRAZY (it was two big ceramic bowls with drains-- a previous owner of the house was a potter and made them, and they looked gross, were hard to clean, AND broke plates since they were curved-- hemispherical sinks are awful in the kitchen! Not to mention one had apparently cracked and been fixed with grout or something, which was ALSO hard to keep clean), but still. Aside from actual accidents, we have a 2-year-old who doesn't always understand how to put things down gently.

I haven't read this whole thread so forgive me if this has been repeated. I have a family friend who used wood from the lanes in a bowling alley that was closing for a huge island in his kitchen. It's definitely the best kitchen surface I have ever seen.

Also, the geology geek in me needs to point out that all granite counter is NOT granite. Granite is quartz, plus lesser amounts of feldspar and mica, with trace minerals. The construction industry uses granite as a catch-all term for virtually any natural stone counter top material.

True granite, with a high quartz content, is going to be a lot durable than other types, for example. A counter top with lots of large pink minerals probably has a lot of potassium feldspar, which is not nearly as durable or hardy as quartz (though it still might be a granite).

_________________"This is the creepiest post ever if you don't know who Molly is." -Fee"a vegan death match sounds like something where we all end up hugging." -LisaPunk

I haven't read this whole thread so forgive me if this has been repeated. I have a family friend who used wood from the lanes in a bowling alley that was closing for a huge island in his kitchen. It's definitely the best kitchen surface I have ever seen.

you should have read the thread. almost every other person chimed in about the re-used bowling alley wood. it was popular a few years back. Popsicle sticks is the latest now.

Marble is not a good choice for kitchen countertops if you plan on cooking much, unless you're a highly fastidious person and will care for it properly. It's much more porous than any other stone options meaning it stains easily, is softer, and needs more frequent sealing than granite. It's just so expensive and easier to destroy with substances you'll likely be using regularly- like coffee and soap scum, and if it does get damaged, repair is costly.

Who here said their granite could not take heat? Do you have granite tiles instead of slab? My last apartment had black granite slab the landlord had chosen precisely because it is highly resistant to acid, heat, stains and scratches. And indeed, it was. It was ideal for working with bread, candymaking, puff pastry and pie dough, felt and proved to be sturdy, took the heat of many casseroles and cookie sheets, did not appear dirty when it is was, and if spilled olive oil or coffee had stained it, no one could tell. I never needed to do anything special but clean as normal. My landlord reseals it every 2-3 years. Unless the stone has some unknown fissures, it'll last for many, many years looking almost new.

Wooden counters I once lived with in a high-traffic kitchen were warm, beautiful, and functional...but always getting scorched, scratched, dented, stained and dulled, swelling and cracking, needing oiling, sanding and finishing regularly. Though, being able to diy fix is definitely preferable to a countertop that can't be fixed without lots of money, time, and a serious mess (cracked concrete, stained or scorched paperstone and recycled surfaces, dented or scorched solid surface/acrylic/corian, dented stainless steel).

Have you looked into soapstone, Isa? Does anyone here have soapstone counters? They're as, if not more, durable than granite, require far less maintenance- just mineral oil treatment and even that is optional, heat resistant, non-porous thus harboring no evil bacteria, inert so acids don't do a thing, and scratches can be buffed out.

In an ideal world I would have, and think almost every home should have, multiple surfaces. I'd have an island of just marble or granite slab for pastry, an area with wood for prep, any side counters in soapstone/ceaserstone/recycled glass based material, and sink and dish area which would be all stainless steel. Never going to happen, but a girl can dream.

Geology geek here again. A black natural rock counter is probably gabbro, unless it is seriously altered and injected with dyes (a possibility). A true granite is going to be light to medium in color because of the high quartz content. Dark rocks don't have the quartz and usually don't have much, if any, feldspar either, so they are more durable than feldspar-rich rocks. The pink granites are not very durable because they have a lot of potassium feldspar. Feldspar has a mineral hardness of ~5.5 or so depending on type, compared to 7 for quartz (diamond is 10; talc is 1).

Potassium feldspar weathers rapidly "in the wild" to clay minerals. They aren't particularly durable or stable and are easily weathered and eroded away. they are usually beige to milky grey white or pink. In a plae granite, you can tell the quartz crystals apart because they look glassier.

If the counter material has swirly bands, it is a metamorphic rock (gneiss or something). Same minerals, just "cooked" a bit with heat and/or pressure.

If I have a point (I might?), it is that if you want a granite countertop, you can do a little geologic forensic work and indentify the type of rock that it actually is and choose one with the highest durability. I don't know much about how they are prepared though--I assume they inject them with stabilizers and fillers?

_________________"This is the creepiest post ever if you don't know who Molly is." -Fee"a vegan death match sounds like something where we all end up hugging." -LisaPunk

NO. Granite SUCKS. We live in a place with brand new granite countertops, and man-- it looks nice, but it dulls your knives, it breaks your dishes, it requires special treatment soas to keep random acids (like lemon juice) from etching it, you can't put hot things on it, and even the tiniest amount of stuff makes it look totally filthy. Formica might look sort of lame and low-budget, but you can USE it. These countertops, I feel like I have to observe them from a distance. It's better than the tile counters we had at our last place, which had many of the knife-destroying drawbacks of granite but also had crevices of grout that made them uneven and a massive pain to clean or to try to set things on or to use for anything that required flatness.

I'd rather have acres of butcherblock-- even check Ikea-stylee butcherblock that I'd have to sand down and re-oil every six months. I'd rather have moderately good Formica. I'd rather have basically ANYTHING other than any surface with a higher hardness than steel that can't take acids and can't take heat. Really, it's like having shoes that can't get wet-- why would you do this to yourself?

So many things are making sense about my granite countertops now.. No WONDER.

My parents have a stone type countertop but it's not granite. It scratches a bit under a knife, but those seem to disappear after a bit.. I have no idea what kind of stone it is, but it's really quite lovely and it's always cool (when it's hot summer, it's quite nice to just... lay as much skin on them as possible.. Nooo I'm not weird at all. My parents don't have A/C)

If I have a point (I might?), it is that if you want a granite countertop, you can do a little geologic forensic work and indentify the type of rock that it actually is and choose one with the highest durability.

This is really fascinating. I am so curious now about what our counters actually are! They're really dark, like almost black, with lighter shiny flaky bits in. Totally googling around now to see if I can match this up with anything.

My parents have soapstone and I love it. It has a much warmer feel than granite. It does pick up minor stains and it's chipped a bit about the edges over time, but I think it ages well if you're into a more wabi sabi look. My grandparents also have soapstone and they're much more into the upkeep (sealing it, not having a bunch of kids spill oil on it) and it looks beautiful, but I think it looks nearly as good without the extra maintenance stress. You can put hot things on it without a worry.

You cannot, however, chop things on it. What is with you people cutting on your countertops? One of my coworkers cut her vegetables up on the countertop of the green model home that we give tours of and left a bunch of gauge marks and was surprised.

I'm so perplexed by the reports on this thread about granite. My mother has granite countertops and they take hot things beautifully (she puts things straight from the oven onto the counter - my aunt and uncle even have granite hot plates that they use on top of their non-heat-resistant countertops), they haven't etched from anything spilling on them, and she doesn't do any special maintenance on them. She uses them to chop, but she is not a serious cook and doesn't care about sharp knives - chopping on granite is as bad as chopping on glass. I wouldn't use anything but wood/bamboo to chop on, but that's what a cutting board is for. Her countertops are super easy to clean and always look beautiful. They're about 10 years old at this point. She got granite specifically because it was so easy to keep looking great, so durable, and you could put anything on them. She's never broken anything on them and all of her dishes are glass or ceramic.